Friedrich Nietzsche was born in Röcken, near Leipzig in Saxony on October 15, 1844. Five generations before him had followed the path of religion, including his paternal grandfather Friedrich August Ludwig, a distinguished preacher and his father Karl Ludwig, a pastor and tutor of the daughters of the Duke of Saxony. Inspite of his admixture of German blood, Nietzsche never forgot his ancestry, and his features remained distinctly Polish. He could count among his forebears a large number of Christian ministers, a fact that is not without significance in view of his own mission. As for mental and physical vigor, the Nietzsche family was particularly well-endowed, there is no record, however, far back we go, of debility or mental oddity among them. Nietzsche’s mother also a large and long-lived family, was eighteen years old when the most gifted of her three children was born. And she outlived his sanity by several years.
According to his sister Elizabeth, Friedrich was a good-looking, fair-haired boy, with exceptionally large dark eyes. At four years of age he could both read and write. He early showed signs of character, and although he was of quiet disposition, he would occasionally fly into a passion that startled everyone by its vehemence. But he was likewise capable of great feats of self-control, for instance, in order to demonstrate that the Roman Mucius Scaevola was not such a remarkable man after all, he several times held his hand in a flame without flinching.
His father died when Nietzsche was five, and after the sudden deaths of several family members within two years, the Nietzsche family moved to Naumburg in 1850 at the urging of the grandmother, where she had lived prior to her marriage. Nietzsche’s immediate family now consisted of his grandmother, his two paternal aunts Auguste and Rosalie, his mother Franziska, and sister Elizabeth.
In Naumburg, young Nietzsche was delighted by the 1854 visit of the king of Prussia, who had admired Friedrich Wilhelm IV since the revolution of 1848.
In 1858 he was awarded a scholarship at the Schulpforta, a school for some 200 elite children.
He studied hard though the standards of the school were very high, as was the discipline. The terms for his scholarship stated he was to study theology at University and prepare himself for priesthood. Both his mother and sister Elizabeth were equally pushing Nietzsche to follow this dedicated path. However, at the age of 18, he grew conscious to religion and began to rapidly lose faith.
After passing the school-leaving exams in 1864, he began to study theology at the University of Bonn. Together with Deussen, he joined the fraternity Franconia, but was not all that impressed with it. As a result, he decided to give up the study of theology after his first year at Bonn and chose classical philosophy as the main subject. When his ‘teacher’ Ritschl departed for Leipzig University, Nietzsche left too, and continued his studies there. At Leipzig, he started the ‘Philological Society’ following Ritschl’s encouragement. In Leipzig Nietzsche obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Jena. The faculty bestow the rank of doctor upon him, without examination.
In 1865 Nietzsche discovered Schopenhauer. Against his usual practice he bought his book entitled "The World as Will and Representation." Upon reading it, he immediately identified his own philosophy’s in Schopenhauer’s work – "It seemed as if Schopenhauer were addressing me personally. I felt his enthusiasm, and seemed to see him before me. Every line cried aloud for renunciation, denial , resignation".
When Nietzsche was 23, he began his compulsory military service. Initially, he applied to the Berlin regiment but at the end, he served in a field artillery unit stationed close to Naumburg. This gave him an opportunity to live at home while performing his service. During training, he fell down from a horse, and sustained a chest and shoulder injuries. Because the injury was slow to heal, he received sick leave for the remainder of his service year. He utilized this time to continue his work in philology.
In the fall of 1868, Nietzsche met Richard Wagner in the home of Ottilie Brockhaus, Wagner’s sister. Nietzsche was impressed by Wagner and later on wrote about him as : "He is then an incredibly lively and fiery man, who speaks very quickly, is very witty, and makes an intimate gathering of this sort very cheerful. Meanwhile I had a longer conversation with him about Schopenhauer: oh, you know what kind of pleasure it was for me, to hear him speak with indescribable warmth of what he owes him, how he is the only philosopher who has recognize the essence of music! Then he inquired about how the philosophers currently treat him, laughed about the philosopher’s congress in Prague and spoke of the ‘philosophical butlers’." During the time, Nietzsche was warmed to Wagner’s wit, passion for music and mutual admiration for Schopenhauer. On the purely emotional side, too, he made more discoveries in music, above all Wagner’s ‘Mastersingers’, which caused ‘every nerve and fibre’ in him to thrill.
During 1869, he considered dropping philosophy to study chemistry, but it never happened.
At the age of twenty four, he was named as a professor of classical philosophy at the University of Basel, in 1868. He whiled away his time lecturing and studying Greek and Latin works.
In the May of 1869, he visited Richard Wagner in Tribschen after being invited to his birthday. During this year, he became a close friend of Wagner, visiting him often. Nietzsche considered his friendship with Wagner as the greatest achievement of his life, next to that which he owed to Schopenhauer. He also spent his Christmas vacation with Richard and his partner Cosima.
The next year, Franz Overbeck arrived in Basel to take up a professorship in theology. He moved into the same house as Nietzsche, and they became close friends. This relationship was one of the Nietzsche’s longest and the most important friendship. Nietzsche intended to write a fitting homage to Wagner’s music, but the plan was delayed by the war in 1870.
French Parliament declared war against Prussia on July 15th, 1870. Nietzsche volunteered for military service, but it was refused due to weak upper body strength and poor eyesight. He was only accepted as a medical orderly. He managed to become a medic responsible for transporting supplies and casualties on the front-line. While serving on front, the experience of suffering and the sight of blood did not agree with him and soon he became sick. He fell ill with diphtheria and was sent home to recover for several months. During the next year, he wrote several letters to his mother complaining of his health.
When Nietzsche was 27, his first book `The Birth of Tragedy’ was published. It was poorly received, but now Nietzsche’s name was beginning to be well known. After reading the book, Wagner remarked to Cosima : "that is the book I have always wished for myself."
The same year, Wagner and Nietzsche were able to convince Bismarck to agree to finance the Bayreuth theatre from which Wagner had a platform for this music. The theatre was completed after four years.
Nietzsche’s year began with a low in his health. In 1879, although unwell for some considerable time, he remarked – "three days I could not write a single line, again very badly off, felt poor the entire week…" and from the late February, he remarked – "since then I have suffered indescribably. A 4-day and a 6-day attack of the most brutal kind – attack upon attack of nausea."
Believing that he was to die, he arranged his own funeral with help from his younger sister Elizabeth, saying "Promise me that when I die only my friends shall stand about my coffin, and no inquisitive crowd. See that no priest or anyone else utter falsehoods at my graveside, when I can no longer protect myself, and let me descend into my tomb as an honest pagan." Fortunately he recovered and went on to write ‘The Dawn of Day’ and ‘The Joyful Wisdom’, both written with a renewed sense for life.
After recovery, he returned to Basel and on 2nd May he submitted his resignation on grounds of his ill health, which was officially accepted on 14th June, along with an official expression of regret and thanks. His successor was Jacob Wackernagel, a former student of Nietzsche. After resignation, he was granted a pension of 3000 Swiss Francs, which was two-thirds of Nietzsche’s regular salary. His resignation provoked expressions of sympathy even from Bayreuth. His sister came to Basel. Nietzsche’s furniture was sold and the majority of his personal library was stored in Zurich.
During 1879, his friendship with Wagner was broken off after a series of long fights. Many of his friends worried about his health and his financial security. He moved to Venice, and various friends helped him to dictate the books. Although he soon moved to Marienbad. He enjoyed long hikes in his spare time. On July 8, 1881, ‘The Dawn’ was published. Unfortunately, his ill health worsened. He decided to live near Monaco and by the end of April, 1882, he stayed in Rome.
At the age of 38, he met Lou von Salome, a beautiful and intelligent Russian girl. She was seventeen years younger than Nietzsche. She enjoyed his company and by the end of April, 1982, he proposed a two year trial marriage to Lou, but she refused. Later in May, Nietzsche proposed again, but was rejected once more. However, they remained friends and in July, during travels, Lou reported, "We are very cheerful with each other, we laugh a great deal."
Unfortunately, Nietzsche’s mother disapproved greatly of Lou and refused to have her in their house. Jealous emotions lead to a misunderstanding between Nietzsche and his friend Paul, who was also a friend of Lou. He also broke off communications with his mother and sister for a duration, while his relations with Lou and Paul grew worse.
In the beginning of the year 1883, Nietzsche was swinging between states of depression and high spirits. He had several weeks of good health, and was able to complete a copy of the first part of Zarathustra. He had some serious fights with his sister, and they did not talk for some time. Suffering from lapses of depression and ill health, he threw himself into his writing and between June and September, he moved to Sils Maria and completed the second part of ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’. He knew this to be one of his best pieces of work, but it was not received so well by his contemporaries .
The publisher did not print the entire work, so Nietzsche himself paid the printing costs. Some mere 40 copies were sold and seven were given away freely. The same year his once friend and the most important figure of his life, Richard Wagner died. This probably only contributed to Nietzsche’s sense of loneliness like that of his character Zarathustra. Moreover, his supportive sister left him to marry anti-semite whom Nietzsche despised, he wrote, " The cursed anti-semitism is the cause of a radical break between me and my sister…" .The only person who support Nietzsche, during his loneliness, was a musician called Heinrich Koselitz whom Nietzsche later renamed ‘Peter Gast’. He was also a former student from Basel whom Nietzsche employed to transcribe his work to be used in ‘Beyond Good and Evil’.
In 1886, Nietzsche started his new volume ‘All to Human’, which was published as ‘Beyond Good and Evil’. He spent his fifth summer in Sils Maria. He also read Dostoevsky, which instantly delighted him.
The following year, his book ‘On the Genealogie of Morals’ was published. It was just the beginning of a long, prolific spurt that was lasted throughout the next year.
In 1888, Nietzsche finally gave up his summer residence and stayed in Turin. He then went for his sixth and final residency in Sils Maria. By the end of August he decided to publish ‘Twilight of the Idols’ and four volumes of ‘Revaluation of all values’. By November, he completed the final draft of ‘The Antichrist’.
After his work on the Anti-Christ, Nietzsche believed that he would see his work run to a million copies in seven languages. However, on the 3rd January 1889, in the Piazza Carlo Alberto, he saw a carriage horse fall to the ground. He immediately rushed towards it, wrapping his arms around it in pity. This was Nietzsche’s last act of sanity. Then he collapsed suddenly and was taken home by his landlord, where he was later found by friends. He played the piano with his elbows and sang like a mad man. He also sent several letters to Overbeck. The ravings in these letters prompt Overbeck to visit Nietzsche. He was taken to the psychiatric hospital in Basel. By 13th January, his mother arrived and transferred him to the University clinic near his family home in Jena.
His mother took him under her care in 1890, and nursed him in Naumburg for seven years until she died in 1897, leaving his sister Elizabeth to care for him.
In 1892, Peter Gast issued new editions of many of Nietzsche’s works. But Elizabeth soon stopped the process. After two years, she purchased the rights of Nietzsche’s works from his mother. Collecting together Nietzsche’s work, Elizabeth pretended that the letters he had written to close friends were in fact addressed to her and used this lie to publicize her brother’s complete works, including a copy she presented to Adolf Hitler, allowing Nietzsche’s name to become tarnished.
Nietzsche lost his reason out of loneliness and despair just as the movement when his name was becoming known all over Europe. ‘A profound man’, he had remarked needs friends, unless he has a God. And I have neither God nor friend.’ Consequently, the solitude in his mind became unendurable.
In August 1897, Elizabeth and Nietzsche moved into a house in Weimar. The son of Ludwig Von Scheffler remarked, "Daddy, know what ? A crazy philosopher had moved in over there !"
Thus so-called crazy philosopher took his last breath on 25th August, 1900, in the thirteenth year of his second childhood, left behind his invaluable treasure of literature

One of Nietszche's fundamental contentions was that traditional values (represented primarily by Christianity) had lost their power in the lives of individuals. He expressed this in his proclamation "God is dead." He was convinced that traditional values represented a "slave morality," a morality created by weak and resentful individuals who encouraged such behavior as gentleness and kindness because the behavior served their interests. Nietzsche claimed that new values could be created to replace the traditional ones, and his discussion of the possibility led to his concept of the overman or superman.
According to Nietzsche, the masses, whom he termed the herd or mob, conform to tradition, whereas his ideal overman is secure, independent, and highly individualistic. The overman feels deeply, but his passions are rationally controlled. Concentrating on the real world, rather than on the rewards of the next world promised by religion, the overman affirms life, including the suffering and pain that accompany human existence. His overman is a creator of values, a creator of a "master morality" that reflects the strength and independence of one who is liberated from all values, except those that he deems valid.
Nietzsche maintained that all human behavior is motivated by the will to power. In its positive sense, the will to power is not simply power over others, but the power over oneself that is necessary for creativity. Such power is manifested in the overman's independence, creativity, and originality. Although Nietzsche explicitly denied that any overmen had yet arisen, he mentions several individuals who could serve as models. Among these models he lists Socrates, Jesus, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Goethe, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon.
Nietzsche exerted much influence on German literature, as well as on French literature and theology. His concepts have been discussed and elaborated upon by such individuals as the German philosophers Karl Jaspers and Martin Heidegger, and the German Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, the German-American theologian Paul Tillich, and the French writers Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre. Nietzsche's is generally recognised as one of the world's greatest philosophers and one of the most provocative and influential thinkers of the 19th century.
Though his literary career extended less than twenty years, he wrote number of books despite his ill health. A prolific writer, he wrote several major works, among them The Birth of Tragedy (1872; trans. 1966), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-85; trans. 1954), Beyond Good and Evil (1886; trans. 1966), On the Genealogy of Morals (1887; trans. 1966), The Antichrist (1888; trans. 1954), Ecce Homo (1889; trans. 1966), and The Will to Power (1901; trans. 1910).

The Birth of Tragedy’ is rich in Nietzsche’s current enthusiasms for Greek literature and especially tragedy. It is dedicated to Richard Wagner, his best friend. Its central vision is the idea that only as an aesthetic phenomenon are existence and the world justified. Making his celebrated distinction between the Apolline and Dionysiac spirit. This was his first book, which was born by the exciting time of the Franco - Prussian War of 1870 to 1871. While the thunders of the Battle of Worth rolled away over Europe, the brooding lover of puzzles who was to be the father of this book sat in some corner of the Alps.
Nietzsche presses us to consider why it is that we derive pleasure from tragic art, and what is the relationship between our experiences of suffering in life and in art.

UNTIMELY MEDITATIONS
Nietzsche wrote this book in four volumes. The four parts are :
Vol. I David Strauss, the Confessor and the Writer
Vol. II The Use and Disadvantage of History for Life.
Vol. III Schopenhauer as Educator.
Vol. IV Richard Wagner in Bayreuth.
Nietzsche was encouraged to read David Strauss "The Old and the New Faith" by the then good friend Wagner. Strauss had openly criticized Wagner, and so Nietzsche, defending his friend, attacked Strauss whose work he found superficial. When Strauss died some six months later, Nietzsche felt badly that he may of in some way saddened the last moments of Strauss’ life.
In the second volume, he discusses the value of historical knowledge in the German education system and his third volume presents ‘self-discovery’. The third piece of ‘Untimely Meditations’ introduces Schopenhauer of whom Nietzsche was a dedicated follower. Nietzsche uses his love for Schopenhauer to discover his true self by asking the question, ‘what do I love ?’, They can find a self that is beyond the ego.
The fourth volume presents some of the reasons why Nietzsche turned away from the Wagner’s friendship. He talks of Wagner’s idiosyncrasies about being anti-semitic and a nationalist.

HUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN
This book sketches in his key theories about the ‘will to power.’ When Nietzsche felt compelled to reject not only Richard Wagner, his former mentor, as a man and a thinker, but also their common intellectual influence, Schopenhauer. Nietzsche sets out his unsettling views on topics ranging from art, arrogance and boredom to passion, science, vanity, women and youth. The book is a mirror of his mature philosophy.

THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA
This book is one of the greatest pieces of Nietzsche’s work, and adopts a style more akin to biblical parables.
The character of Zarathustra portrays the conscious mind working against the unconscious – a losing battle perhaps, but nevertheless, one fourth with optimism and passion. Nietzsche’s ‘Thus spoke Zarathustra’ is a spiritual odyssey through the modern world.
The utterance, ‘God is dead’ gives the message that the meaning of life is to be found in purely human terms. It is extremely valuable in enabling a reader to judge Nietzsche as a brilliantly original thinker.
In ‘Thus spoke Zarathustra’, he declared : ‘It is better to fall into the hands of a murderer than into the dreams of an ardent woman.’ Men who are total strangers to passion do not usually talk in that strain.

BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL
In this creation, Nietzsche presented his favorite theme : ‘ how cultures lose their creative drive and become decadent.’ He offers a wealth of fresh insights into the self-destructive urge of Christianity, the terrible dangers in the headlong pursuit of philosophical or scientific truth and the prevalence of ‘slave moralities’.

TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS, THE ANTICHRIST
Both works show Nietzsche lashing out at self-deception, astounded at how often morality is based on vengefulness and resentment. Both combine utterly unfair attacks on individuals with amazingly acute surveys of whole contemporary cultural scene.
‘Twilight of Idols’ offers a lightening tour of Nietzsche’s whole philosophy. It also prepares the way for ‘The Antichrist’, a final assault on institutional Christianity. Both the work reveal a profound understanding of human mean spiritedness which still cannot destroy the underlying optimism of Nietzsche.